South Korea-based Taesung, a plastic injection molding machine design and production firm serving the consumer plastics industry, will invest $6.6 million to build and equip a Shorter, Alabama, manufacturing facility. The facility will launch the international company’s entry into the automotive sector. The project’s initial phase will create 70 jobs in Macon County, with more possible through expansion.

Taesung Alabama’s 40,000-square-foot plant in Shorter Technology Park will produce plastic-injection molded parts and provide machine designs and services for automotive companies. The Alabama plant will be the first in the U.S. for Taesung, which has operations in Korea, Poland, Russia and Mexico.

“This new operation in Shorter, Alabama, is a partnership with the community, and we are honored and appreciative of the support we are receiving,” Taesung President Chang Bin Koh said at a groundbreaking ceremony.

“This project in Macon County will provide additional diversification to the state’s economy and will put local residents to work in jobs that pay good wages and benefits,” Alabama Secretary of Commerce Greg Canfield said. “It also shows that rural Alabama and the state’s Black Belt counties can compete and win new investment and jobs.”